Start conserving energy today

During my recent visit to one solar solution provider, we had discussion regarding solar implementations. We concluded that people have to be educated. He was of view that generally people who want to opt for solar ask how much it takes to convert their house into off grid solar power house. When they hear about the cost for converting whole house to solar energy; they loose interest. He suggested that the better option should be to first consider preservation of energy, and then they should consider converting to solar in phases. I whole heartily agreed and decided to write on our blog the measures that could be taken to save energy. Below are few points you should consider before investing heavily into solar powered system, this will help you in decreasing electricity bill and you will start reaping benefits immediately.

• Try to understand which device in your house is consuming how much power and impact of them on your monthly bill. You can google and find out power consumption of each appliance, using those values you can estimate total power consumed monthly by each appliance. This will give you framework of areas which need maximum attention to impact your monthly bill.
• You should consider investing in LED bulbs which are available cheaply in local market. We found some 3 Watts bulb available at Rs. 300 while 5 Watt bulb at Rs. 500. Generally buy these bulbs from electronics market rather than from solar solution providers. Solar solution providers are selling them at higher prices as compare to electronics market.
• Consider using efficient fans in your house. Generally speaking ceiling fan available locally consumes 85-100 Watts and they are not energy efficient. Even though solar solution providers are selling 12 volt ceiling fans with 35 Watt power consumption but RPM for these fans are low. You could check it out if these fans work for you. The other alternative is using energy efficient pedestal fans these are available in different models using 15-35 Watts. You need to work in this area as if a our conventional fan eats up 1 Unit in 10 hours and you can run energy efficient fans for 30 hours consuming same amount of energy.
• Try to improve insulation of your house. There are different options available. You can invest in insulating your house roof. There are dozens of vendors available who spray roof with some sort of foam to increase insulation. This reduces air-conditioning cost to keep rooms cool.
• Consider using gas Iron instead on conventional electric iron. Iron uses 1 unit per hour so gas iron will impact your power bill.
• Conserve water and use it with care. This will reduce time you will run pump and you will consume less power.
• Whenever you are buying any new electrical appliance always inquire about power consumption, buy energy efficient appliances.
• Always switch off you TV, Computer, and other appliance from socket board while not in use. Your power extensions waste some energy even though you aren’t using your appliance.

Once you start working on these lines, you will find dozens of other ways to conserve energy within you own house. This will help you in decreasing you power bill and if you opt for solar you will require less investment to partially or fully convert your home to solar.